The Opposition View - Northampton

Following yesterday's 1-1 draw with Northampton Town, here are some views on the game from the Cobblers manager Ian Sampson and a few of their fans.

Sampson felt his side kept battling away and he was delighted to take a point from what he called a good Wycombe side in a very tight league.

"In the end I was happy with a point and the character of the players shone through again," he told his club's official website.

"It was a fairly even game and I think you will see that a lot this season. It's a very tight league and there were a lot of draws again today."

"Wycombe are a good team with good players and I'm sure they will be up there come the end of the season," he said.

When asked about the referee's abysmal performance, Sampson told the BBC: "He's got to referee the game and he gives the decisions he sees fit - sometimes we don't agree with them and sometimes we do. We've got to abide by them I'm afraid and that's the way it goes - we can't change him half way through the game unfortunately."

The Cobblers fans were grateful for their point and were scathing in their assessment of referee's performance.

The following extracts are taken from 'The Hotel End' and Football Forums.

CobblerJay wrote:'A point is a fair result on the whole. Good of the Wycombe fans to applaud as Purcell was stretchered off. The referee was absolutely shocking. Think he was correct to award us the penalty but that was about the only thing he got right all afternoon. Didn't particularly favour one team, just shocking in general. Wanted to be the centre of attention.'

dazza wrote:'Lucky to get a point today. We really do have serious problem up front.'

jayntfc wrote:'Awful, awful ref. I think we were lucky to snatch a point to be honest, Wycombe can feel pretty hard done by. Penalty was the right decision (one of the few decisions the ref actually got right all game), and the free-kick that led to their goal should have actually been a penalty. But they were really doing us down the wings. I thought they looked a good side and they took a decent following. Shame the game was absolutely ruined by an awful ref.'

abington_cobbler wrote:'The ref was a disgrace today, very harsh giving handball but to be fair it was a cracking free kick for their goal. I was right behind Thorno's pen and thought the keeper had saved it.'

ntfclodge wrote:'Awful ref, but think he was right to give Wycombe the free-kick which led to their goal... and wrong to give our penalty - Holt played him like a fiddle!'

FezNTFC wrote:'Wycombe actually played some decent stuff on the floor at times, so quite why they felt the need to dive and cheat I don't know. It was nicely capped off at the end when their fans started chanting 'Can We Have A Referee'. This was after he had given us 3 decisions in our own half all game, and had given them everything else. I can only come to the conclusion that they had been looking at the back of the stand all game.'

Fred_NTFC wrote:'The ref set the tone for the afternoon when he gave Wycombe a goal-kick early on, completely baffling everyone in the ground as it was the most obvious corner you'll ever see. Thought Wycombe should have had a pen late in the day too.'

HertsCobbler wrote:'Although I thought their free-kick was more ball to hand, it looked so far inside the penalty area it was untrue. Boyeson has been around for years, cannot remember him being that bad though.'

NTFCNut wrote:'When all four sides of the ground are singing 'you're not fit to referee' at once, it's a sad vindication of your officiating ability.'